The partnerships with Dubai Tourism, however, do not involve sectors in which the two giants are directly competing. Tencent has backed major OTAs, including Meituan-Dianping. Nonetheless, the company’s primary role in the outbound travel market is digital marketing through the social media and messaging app WeChat. The city of Dubai already has a CityExperience mini-program, an in-app digital travel guide. Dubai Tourism’s partnership with Alibaba will primarily seek to directly promote sales of tickets and bookings for Dubai on the OTA Fliggy. While Fliggy is far from China’s most prominent OTA, it has a dedicated following with Chinese millennials and FITs. The partnership between Fliggy and Tourism Dubai will feature promotions and expanded Dubai-tourism content on the OTA’s platform.

However, it’s the partnership with Huawei that is the most unusual. While Huawei is one of China’s most important tech companies, it has made very few forays into the Chinese tourist market.  The partnership will see Huawei placing Dubai travel guides on the company’s smartphones and make them available on the Huawei app store.

“Huawei devices connect and serve hundreds of millions of users worldwide,” said Mr. Zhang Ping’an, President of Huawei Consumer Cloud Service. “Huawei not only has intelligent hardware products but also an extensive digital business ecology. Huawei hopes to cooperate with Dubai Tourism, to bring the digital capabilities of Huawei Mobile Services to Dubai, and to other countries and regions around the world, recommending Dubai’s rich tourism resources to global Huawei users.”

Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai’s Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), commented, “Dubai is increasingly winning the hearts of Chinese tourists as a thrilling and exotic destination. We are excited to be working with Huawei to further utilize its hugely popular and respected platforms. Dubai Tourism is already successfully working closely with Huawei to build affinity with our Chinese target audiences through this enhanced partnership, Chinese travelers will enjoy a more immersive discovery of Dubai.”